Gonzales urges TTPost to improve its service

PUBLIC Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales urged the Trinidad and Tobago Postal Corporation (TTPost) to continue to evolve and improve the level of its service.

He spoke at the reopening of the company's post office in Gasparillo on Wednesday.

Since its establishment in 1999, he said, TTPost has continuously modernised its services and expanded its outreach.

"We are now at another major watershed in the evolution of the postal sector, where rapid technological development mandates a need for transformation."

Traditional postal services were being challenged before the covid19 pandemic by phenomena like online shopping and e-commerce.

"These developments have led to a fundamental shift in the way people conduct business."

In 2020, the onset of the pandemic saw an even further decline in the need for traditional postal services.

Gonzales observed that the Universal Postal Union’s 2021 spoke about a level of contraction in the global postal sector which had not been seen since World War II.

But t as an essential service, he continued he postal sector continued to work through the pandemic and associated covid19 restrictions despite challenges such as intermittent air traffic and labour-supply shortages.

TT and its postal sector must respond positively to this new business environment.

"In TT, we talk about restructuring and we talk about transformation, and the first thing people say is that you are going to lose your job."

Gonzales wondered, had TTPost not made strategic changes during its existence, "where we will now be."

Is TTPost's structure of 1999 relevant to one in 2022? Gonzales said, "Certainly not."

En route to Gasparillo, Gonzales asked for changes to be made to his speech. He opined that 30 years ago, "I would have been depending on a postie to collect my remarks at the office, perhaps on a bicycle or whatever, and get down to Gasparillo on time."

Today, Gonzales said, that information was e-mailed to him en route and he was able to amend his speech "without any reliance on TTPost."

He praised TTPost for continuing its traditional mail service to the public while simultaneously diversifying to offer new services. The latter include e-commerce delivery services and an expanded courier service.

Gonzales said, "These initiatives, along with others, which I understand are under active consideration, are sure to result in the development of new revenue streams, which will put the utility firmly on the road to financial stability, and transformation to an entity which is much more responsive to the needs of the citizens of TT."

He urged TTPost to "continue to pursue innovative and creative ways to develop new product offerings as the new market conditions demand."

Tabaquite MP Anita Haynes welcomed TTPost's return to Gasparillo. She recalled this was one of the first concerns raised to her as a new MP in 2020 and was happy it had now been addressed